INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS

LouvainX online course [Louv2x] - prof. Olivier De Schutter

READING MATERIAL
related to: section 8, sub-section 3, unit 4: State reporting: challenges

Compilation of Guidelines on the Form and Content of Reports to be submitted by

States Parties to the International Human Rights Treaties (HRI/GEN/2/Rev.6, 3 June
2009):

12. All States are parties to at least one of the main international human rights treaties the
implementation of which is monitored by independent treaty bodies (see paragraph 1), and
more than seventy-five per cent are party to four or more. As a consequence, all States have
reporting obligations to fulfil and should benefit from adopting a coordinated approach to
their reporting for each respective treaty body.
13. States should consider setting up an appropriate institutional framework for the
preparation of their reports. These institutional structures-which could include an inter-
ministerial drafting committee and/or focal points on reporting within each relevant
government department-could support all of the State’s reporting obligations under the
international human rights instruments and, as appropriate, related international treaties (for
example, Conventions of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and could provide an effective
mechanism to coordinate follow-up to the concluding observations of the treaty bodies.
Such structures should allow for the involvement of sub-national levels of governance
where these exist and could be established on a permanent basis.
14. Institutional structures of this nature could also support States in meeting other
reporting commitments, for example to follow up on international conferences and summits,
monitor implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, etc. Much of the
information collected and collated for such reports may be useful in the preparation of
States’ reports to the treaty bodies.
15. These institutional structures should develop an efficient system for the collection
(from the relevant ministries and government statistical offices) of all statistical and other
data relevant to the implementation of human rights, in a comprehensive and continuous
manner. States can benefit from technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in collaboration with the Division for the
Advancement of Women (DAW), and from relevant United Nations agencies.